


Blue Light and Orange Metal: Cat's Observations

by Pagemistress1



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cat POV, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Symmrat Gift Exchange, Vishkar not being a very nice place very strongly alluded to, events of Rio vaguely alluded to, might make this a series I don't know, most of the characters are only mentioned really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 02:12:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pagemistress1/pseuds/Pagemistress1
Summary: A cat thinks about the relationship between her owner and the man she loves who loves her back, and the good changes brought it about and resulted from it.





	Blue Light and Orange Metal: Cat's Observations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thetimeslug](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=thetimeslug).



> This is for @thetimeslug on Tumblr for the Symmrat Gift Exchange!
> 
> For anyone curious, Saroja is a female Birman of the blue variety with blue eyes. There's no real reason to bring it up in the fic, so I thought I'd let you know here. Birmans came up as being good cats for people on the spectrum like Satya, and Saroja is one of many Hindi names that mean "lotus".

As she watched the two of them animatedly discuss some project from her perch on Boar’s shoulder, there were two things on the cat’s mind. The first was that either she or the large human would have to remind them to stop and eat soon, again. The second was that Blue Light was happier with Orange Metal than Saroja had ever seen her with anyone else.

Granted, she was happier in Second Home than she had been in First Home. If anyone were to ask Saroja, she would have said her human was content. Her opinion might have been affected by the fact she considered the only good things about First Home were that it was warm, dry, had a roof, and Blue Light was there.

How humans could live and work in the same place, but not have meaningful connections with their fellows was beyond her.

There had never been anyone to come to Blue Light’s home and watch the moving stories with her, or just after a long day, or do those strange stretches or dances with her, or comfort her when her long trips started making her sad, or even just comfort her when she was upset for any reason.

Saroja had done those things ever since Blue Light had found her in the rain as a kitten. She didn’t understand the stories, but she was happy to snuggle with her when she did. She always ran to the door when Blue Light came back from her meetings to greet her. She couldn’t do the stretches, but Blue Light always liked it when she tried to join in with the dancing, or even just watched her. She knew when Blue Light needed comforting and was more than happy to be held for as long as she needed.

Saroja knew, with the same certainty that she knew things that rolled on the ground were fun to play with, that Blue Light deserved to have companions, and certainly one who could be there to greet her when she came home.

She didn’t quite know why they had left First Home for Second Home, but Blue Light had started to become aware of just how unhappy she was there, so it didn’t matter to her. What was supposed to be another long trip turned into running away and Blue Light relaxed more than she had in ages when Frog and Cheer reassured her before they all flew away, so as far as Saroja was concerned Second Home brought nothing but good.

There were all sorts of strange people there; most human, a few metal, one who was an animal, and one who was just a voice, but they were all good people. Saroja had done her best to stick with Blue Light once she realized these people had no problems with her going where she pleased, minus a few exceptions (Unseen was quite good at making sure doors didn’t open where she wasn’t supposed to go). It had a been a win/win situation, as far as she could tell; Blue Light would relax more because of her familiar presence, and she was something to talk about before moving on to other things.

They had only started getting used to the way things were now, when Guardian brought Orange Metal and Boar.

If it were possible to make some of the noises Blue Light did when she found something amusing, then Saroja would have done so at the memory of that day. She had only been aware that Guardian had brought two dangerous human thieves back from his trip, and there had been several questions of his mental state while the elder humans discussed what to do with them.

She hadn’t really paid attention until Hawk had picked her up and left the room without anyone noticing. She eventually stopped at a door, muttered an apology to Saroja, and then next thing she had known she was looking at two very bored and untamed looking humans.

She’d been quite annoyed when Hawk had set her on the ground before she got a proper look at them, and quickly climbed onto the closest chair and then the table the two were leashed to by their hands. Her annoyance had gone away when Hawk had said she was a very good judge of character, both because of the praise and the realization that she wisely sought her opinion on whether to trust these two.

She had come to four conclusions moments later. First was that she liked the way they said things, similar in ways to the way Cheer sounded, but still a flavor all its own. Second was that Boar clearly had experience with cats before, since he had been the one who knew how to beckon her over and just where to scratch behind her ears. Third was that Orange Metal had to be on the of the warmest humans she had ever had the pleasure of meeting, to the point that she was willing to put up with Blue Light bathing her later to snuggle against his chest, smoky smelling dirt and all. Fourth was that they were feral more than untamed, and feral things could be civilized.

The best part had been when Blue Light had come in, upset about Saroja’s presence, plucking her away from Orange Metal and out of the room. Her human might have missed the way the yellow haired human had watched her, but not her.

There’d been a hint of interest in that look; the kind people in the moving stories had that sometimes led to courting.

Even now, Saroja still hadn’t been certain whether Orange Metal had immediately tried to court Blue Light, or if it had happened later. Mostly because it became quite clear that he had no real idea how to properly interact with others. Or respect of personal territory. Or sitting still. Frankly, his unfamiliarity with bathing was the least surprising.

She’d been glad Blue Light had found her, so she hadn’t become feral like that. It appeared to be a difficult way to live.

Despite that, he proved to be far more clever than he appeared, and he was very persistent in many, many things. And his persistence in trying to get to know Blue Light eventually had her notice his cleverness, which led to her trying to get to know him.

Watching them become closer had been fun to watch, even more than the moving stories with the singing and dancing, or playing follow the leader with the yellow bird.

(Boar made an excellent viewing companion for that.)

His absolute fascination for the solid blue light she’d named her for, all the interesting shapes and objects she could make, like chairs, or tools, or toys (Saroja liked those the best). Then he had asked her questions, and from there they had gone into discussions about things that Saroja found far too complicated to be worth listening to.

Then, he’d started telling her funny things, and got the most delighted look on his face when she laughed, or giggled. Saroja didn’t quite understand, and sometimes if the others heard they would groan, so she supposed it was a matter of opinion sort of funny. They began to spend more and more time together, and Orange Metal never seemed to stay still nearly as long as he did with Blue Metal (the others called her a good influence), and he made her come out of her shell more and more.

Then, once day, Blue Light laughed so hard at something he said while they were walking that she had placed her white metal hand against his shoulder for support.

She was more okay with touching him, after that, though sometimes they were funny about it. That had been about the point Saroja had become aware that the courtship was happening. It involved quite a bit of one looking at the other when that one wasn’t looking at them, their faces faintly changing colors, and anyone else who happened to be watching commenting how adorable they were out of earshot. They eventually moved past this, or at least stopped being awkward about it (feline courtship was so much They would invite each other to do things, like watch Blue Light’s moving stories (he liked the ones with fights or with the singing and dancing the best), or even ones he picked out. Sometimes they went to the town near Second Home, and Saroja wasn’t sure what they did.

She did know that, after the first time, when he had escorted her back to the bedroom, Blue Light had pressed her lips to Orange Metal’s for a few moments before pulling away and wishing him a good night. After the door shut, there had been a moment of quiet before a slightly muffled but unmistakable cheer came from the other sound (followed by Rabbit yelling at him for quiet).

Saroja wasn’t sure if they were mated by human standards (at least, if the stories were anything to go by), though they certainly engaged in mating (there were nights where Saroja was banished from the room, and since they didn’t bother when it was just sleeping, that must have been it). Despite the occasional rough spot, she was quite confident that it would become so at some point. Because they were there when the other was sad, especially when Blue Light had one of her unhappy moments, and they greeted each other in the mornings or evenings with affectionate touches, and they snuggled together when everyone managed to agree on a moving story to watch in the room with the big screen, and they could work on hard problems together, and they both loved to play with her as though they had found her together. Because they were happy together, and she wanted them to stay happy together.

Saroja was broken out of her thoughts when Boar’s hand came up to move her from his shoulder to his arms before moving to the door, Blue Light and Orange Metal actually following him out without prompting for once, though still deep in discussion. She found herself hoping he stuck around when they did whatever they had to do to be officially mated; she rather liked having someone else to make them be sensible about eating and sleeping, and he was more than willing to give her affection when they were too busy giving affection to each other instead.

**Author's Note:**

> An article in Business Insider said that cats can see colors, albeit not as vibrantly as humans do. Plus, Satya had the patience to actually train her to identify colors. Reddish colors were the hardest, but Saroja really liked the praise Satya gave her when she was learning, and now it’s a game for Satya to name a color and Saroja to retrieve the toy of that color.
> 
> Saroja is aware that humans have proper names. But they also seem to have a lot of different names, and her reasoning is that this means she’s allowed to give them names of her own choosing. Not sure if she bothers with people she doesn’t like.
> 
> Athena lucked out with her name, because I was fully prepared to just call her Voice before I realized the fact that Saroja mostly doesn’t see her would make for a better name.
> 
> Guardian aka Solider 76 aka Jack Morrison. Only explaining him because there's a few Overwatch characters that name could technically fit. If he was aware of it, he’d probably think it was better than ‘Dad’.
> 
> I subscribe to the headcanon that someone decided to test whether Jesse was worth taking a risk on by letting Fareeha into the room he was being held in and seeing how he interacted with her. This was, interestingly enough in _my_ headcanon, not something either Jack or Gabe came up with, though the results pleased them. Ana was more annoyed that no one consulted her before being told. In the absence of any small children being conveniently on base, Fareeha decided a cat would work. Ana sympathized with Satya’s annoyance at the situation, if anyone is curious.
> 
> There had been some concern over her following the bird in a chasing manner, until someone pointed out that Saroja only ever seemed to be running after Ganymede, never trying to catch him. Bastion had been very careful in introducing his feathered friend to his new furry friend, it turned out. How did he do this? Heck if I know, I don't have a degree in engineering.


End file.
